Ten Things You Never Knew About Sacha Baron Cohen

Sacha Baron Cohen returns for his third big screen character movie outing this week as Austrian fashionista Brüno. More outlandish than Ali G and more outrageous than Borat, it promises to be the biggest box office comedy hit of the summer. But what do you really know about the man behind these roles? In celebration of his latest release, DS has gathered together ten fascinating facts about the controversial comic.

1. Sacha was born on October 13, 1971 in Hammersmith, London to Daniella and Gerarld Baron Cohen. His father was originally from Wales, while his mother was born in Israel.

2. Cohen's brother Erran and cousin Simon have both achieved success in their respective fields even if they're not quite as well known as their sibling. Erran is a composer and trumpet player, while Simon is a renowned professor at Cambridge University. All in all, a pretty talented family.

3. Before taking up character comedy, Cohen looked likely to follow a career in academia. At Christ's College, Cambridge, he produced a thesis on the Jewish involvement in the American Civil Rights movement. However, it was his time at Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club which ended up swinging Cohen into the limelight.

4. Cohen went to Haberdashers' Aske's School for Boys. Oddly, this educational establishment has also seen famous faces such as Alan Whicker, Matt Lucas, David Baddiel and Damon Hill walk through its doors.

5. Before he struck gold with Ali G on The Eleven O'Clock Show, Sacha was forced to slum it on obscure satellite shows such as Pump TV. "The budget was about forty pounds a week, and we had a viewership of about fifty to sixty people," said Cohen. It was quite some way off from the blockbuster Hollywood movies that lay in store.

6. Reports have circulated on numerous occasions that Cohen may play Freddie Mercury in a biopic about the Queen singer's life. Is there any truth to the rumors? "Pure hokum," according to the actor's publicist.

7. It may sound like an unlikely friendship, but Cohen is apparently best buddies with WWE wrestler John Cena. Online reports have claimed that the Brüno star is a big fan of the sports entertainment format. Maybe we'll see Borat and co at the next Wrestlemania or Royal Rumble.

8. Sacha began using character acting a long while before Ali G and Borat hit TV screens. He often pretended to be a musician, drug dealer or bouncer to get into major events in Cambridge and New York when he was a youngster.

9. Did you ever wonder why Sacha insists on playing characters and doing so very few proper media interviews? Well, apparently he just can't deal with the fame. "I think that, essentially, I'm a private person, and to reconcile that with being famous is a hard thing," he says. "So I've been trying to have my cake and eat it too - to have my character be famous yet still lead a normal life where I'm not trapped by fame and recognisability... I guess I've been greedy."

10.Did you hear about the snappy working title for Brüno? Earlier reports, which may have been a joke, claimed that the film was going to be called Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt. It would have to of been quite a hefty film poster!